


one out of infinite

by JakeyFryMason011



Series: Branches [2]
Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Dark Eleven, F/M, No idea where this will go
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-27
Updated: 2018-12-24
Packaged: 2019-09-01 12:05:17
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 6
Words: 8,644
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16764820
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JakeyFryMason011/pseuds/JakeyFryMason011
Summary: In a very different world, there is no Mike Wheeler, no Will Byers, no Dustin or Lucas or Max. There is only 011 and Papa. 011 is now sixteen years old, and desperately wants to watch the entire world die.So she kills it. But that doesn't help, so she kills another Earth. And another. And then she goes on a rampage around the multiverse, destroying them and leaving the ashes and chaos in her wake.Then, one day, she comes across a universe where there is no 011 or Eleven or El or Jane or Eleanor or Ellie. There is only Mike, Will, Dustin, Lucas and Max.011 looks at a boy with dorky sweaters and floppy black hair and decides maybe it's okay to stop killing universes. For now.





	1. The Breach

"Reach out," Papa told her. "Look."

Around her, solemn-faced men in suits watched, taking notes on clipboards, and Papa shook their hands.

Papa said that they were going to find other universes, and, to help, had left her with a few books on the matter. He said they were going to try to talk to those other universes.

011 nodded blandly, and Papa smiled and said "Good girl."

If only he knew what her plans were. 

She played along, closing her eyes in the tepid water, opening them again in absolute, empty blackness. The familiar water lapped at her feet. 

A faint nose. 011 turned, eyes alert, and found a small crack in her darkness, through which soft yellow light shone. She approached it without fear, looking through the tear, and saw an open field, draped in late-afternoon light. A bird whistled from the tree.

She turned away from it in disgust.

011 wandered through the Void, peeking into cracks here and there.

She found one that she liked. Finally.

It was glowing red and crackling, and when she looked inside she saw that it was fire and ashes.

She poked a finger through the crack, allowing a bit of ash to brush it.

011 liked this world. Quite a bit. Pulling at the edges of the crack, she tugged, and it opened a bit more.

This was her way out.

But not yet.

First, she wanted to make her world look like this.

Papa would never know what hit him.

So, she focused on this crack, focused on drawing everything about it into her world. All the fire, the fumes, the ash and the skeletons.

It was inside her now. All she needed to do was let it out.

So when Papa drew her out, she incinerated him with a blast of pure heat.

Then, she killed the lab and the stupid little town next to it. Then the entire county. Then the state. Then she killed the country, the entire earth.

All in a matter of nine hours.

011 smiled to herself as the screams finally quieted. She had done quite well, she thought.

She decided to try it again somewhere else.

* * *

Another earth, far away.

"We're so screwed," Lucas whispered, leaning forward in the darkness.

"Don't say that, it might not be too late," Dustin said, the tremor in his voice debunking his own statement.

"Shush," Max said, actually getting into it.

The group leaned forward...

The dice flipped to a seven.

"Shit!" Dustin said. "Will!"

"I'm sorry! It's not like I can control how these things go anyway--"

Mike, his voice deep and loud, said "The abomination gets closer! Your spell has only annoyed it, and now it's even hungrier!"

"We're so screwed!" Lucas said again, his voice louder.

"Dustin, your turn!" Will said, and Dustin reached for the dice--

_Thoom._

The boys stopped. The dice shook from the table and fell to the floor. Nearby, a hastily balanced stack of comics collapsed from the table, spilling onto the floor.

The lights flickered, dimmed and brightened, before going back to normal.

"What was that?" Max said.

"No idea," Mike said, looking around.

* * *

A year later, and 011 was proud of herself. She had killed hundreds of worlds so far, and had grown to relish the dying screams of the inhabitants. Her favorite method was to raze the planet with fire, second only to deadly viruses that killed the populations slowly. Now, she bent her fingers and the entire center of this earth collapsed, imploding. Everyone on the planet was incinerated instantly.

She wiped a bit of blood from her nose. Time to move on to the next. Only this time, she wanted to be on the surface when it died.

* * *

"You'll get a girlfriend eventually," Nancy said to Mike. "Just don't be such a dweeb around them, is all."

"Gee, thanks," Mike said, rolling his eyes.

The tremor and the odd happenings with the lights had been forgotten by now, and the boys were back with their own issues to deal with. Small, perhaps, on a scale with what was happening just outside of their universe's protective membrane, but to them they seemed very big.

Plus, they had no way of knowing what was happened.

Not yet, anyway.

Nancy just shook her head. "You're welcome. Now get out of my room."

Mike Wheeler's problem was that girls hated him. All girls. And it sucked big-time.

But really, what could he do? It wasn't like he was willing to change who he was just to get a girlfriend, which his sister, although she didn't say it out loud, begrudgingly admired about him. 

Outside, he hopped on his bike with a pocket of quarters, bound for the arcade.

He almost hit someone on the way. A very important someone, and, while not familiar to him, she's very familiar to those who know what's going on.

If you die, it's very likely she's the last thing you'll see.

"Shit, sorry," Mike said, picking himself off the ground. "I didn't see you there."

She hadn't been there until a minute ago, but she wasn't about to tell him that.

"It's okay," was all she said, already thinking about ways to peel his skin from his skull.

Mike picked up his bike, examining her. The first thing that caught his eye was that she was pretty. Really pretty. She had hair that was perhaps a little bit shorter than usual, but curly and brown, and to Mike in the darkness her eyes looked almost hazel-red. "I haven't seen you around here before," he said as a conversation starter.

"You wouldn't have," she said. "I'm new."

"Oh," Mike said with a nod. "Cool. Do you have any friends yet?"

"No," she said.

"You don't? Why?" he asked, genuinely concerned.

"I just don't."

"Oh," Mike said, frowning. "Hey! Why don't you come to the arcade?"

The girl blinked at him, as though surprised, and said "What?"

"Come to the arcade! You can meet my friends, and maybe then you'll have actually made some!"

Mike Wheeler was a nice kid. A nice kid, and a little too trusting.

011 smiled to herself. "Sure," she told him. She'd go and meet some of the inhabitants. It would make it even more fun when their lives were snuffed out.

"Cool!" Mike said, grinning at her in a way she found both annoying and, for the first time, sort of cute. Maybe she'd kill him last, or at least save his body to look at later. "Here, I'll walk with you."

Her fingers twitched, but he didn't see, and she smiled at him. "Lead the way," she told him.

Mike Wheeler, until this moment, led a very normal life.

Mike Wheeler had no idea what he'd gotten himself into.


	2. The Rainstorm

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mike introduces 011 to the others and she gets a new name. Lucas doesn't trust her, but 011 feels herself starting to change ever so slightly.  
> And she doesn't mind, surprisingly.

"You're late," Lucas told Mike when they arrived; then he saw 011. "And who is this?"

Mike blinked, realizing he still didn't know her name. "Wait, what is your name?"

"You didn't even get her name?"

"It just slipped my mind, okay, Lucas? Jesus."

"011," 011 said.

"Your name is...Eleven?" Mike asked, tilting his head in a way that made his hair slant. She thought he looked adorably easy to kill. Lucas and Mike exchanged looks: Lucas with a raised eyebrow, Mike with his own brow furrowed.

"Yes," she said.

Mike blinked at her. "Well, okay, um...how about we call you El? Short for Eleven?"

"El," she said aloud, tasting the word on her lips. It would last for now. "Okay." El. She rather liked the name, so she smiled at Mike, who blushed slightly.

It was going to be a shame to have to kill him.

"Here, come inside," Mike said, pushing open the arcade door. She smiled and walked in after her, Lucas following. His eyes bored into her back; he'd have to be done away with before he found anything out.

A group of boys and one girl gathered around a game, shouting, and just as they arrived the screen turned black and the words GAME OVER flashed.

"Son of a bitch!" said the boy in the center. He was pudgy, with curly hair that exploded cheerfully from under a tricolored hat. "I hate this overpriced bullshit!"

"Looks like I still have the high score," said the girl. She was pale, freckled, with red hair that ran down to her back, and right now her face was adorned with a mocking smile.

"Fuck off, Mayfield," the first boy said in response.

"There you are," a third boy said, stepping away from the bickering two. He was smaller than the rest of them, with a brown bull cut and large eyes that seemed to express nervousness. "What held you up? Oh, hello, what's your name?"

"This is _Eleven,"_ Lucas said, his voice clearly without an ounce of trust. "Mike met her ten minutes ago on the street."

"Jesus, Lucas, you make it sound so weird--"

"That's because it is!"

El flinched as Lucas practically shouted into her ear.

"Stop it!" Mike said. "You're freaking her out!"

"She's freaking me out!"

"Guys!" Will interrupted. "Come on." He turned to look at her. "Your name is...Eleven?"

"They nicknamed me El," she said, "so I guess you could call me that."

"Oh," Will said, then shrugged. "Okay. I'm Will. The guy who picked you up is Mike and this is Lucas."

"Ah, new blood!" the first boy said, turning from his game and giving her a goofy smile oddly devoid of front teeth. "Who might you be?"

"El," she said. Will rolled his eyes. "If you'd been _listening_ _,_ you'd have known."

The first boy just ignored him, shaking El warmly by the hand. El shivered. Such an abundance of happiness in one person was something she wasn't used to. "I'm Dustin. Or Toothless, depending on who tells you. This is--"

The girl shoved him away and grabbed El's hand for her own. "My name's Max. So you're not the only one with the odd name."

"Hello," was all El said.

"Wow, she's a quiet one," Max said, turning to Mike. "Where'd you find her?"

"Wandering around between Elm and Cherry," Mike said with a shrug. "She said she didn't have any friends yet, so I figured she could meet us at least."

"Okay, Wheeler, that was really sweet or whatever, but you can't just pick up random people on the street who say they're lonely. I mean--" here she turned to examine El "--look at her, she looks like she's killed people before."

El felt herself freeze. Did they know? But then Max just laughed. "Anyway. Want to watch me beat a couple of nerds in a video game?"

"Um, excuse me," Dustin said, "but you have an unfair advantage--"

"Just because I know cheats and you don't--"

Within seconds, they were back to bickering.

El rather liked this odd group of inhabitants. Maybe she could hold off destroying their universe for a little while.

* * *

They were kicked out of the arcade an hour later because the man who ran it wanted to close up, so the group meandered around town, talking. Dustin and Max were still bickering, and soon Lucas joined in too. But it was clear he still didn't trust her in the slightest, because his sharp eyes kept flicking back to her.

Will walked a little behind them, just watching the night sky, and as for Mike--

"Hi," he said, falling into step next to her.

"Hello," El said.

"Hey, uh, sorry about Max and Dustin. They argue about everything, really, it's sort of annoying."

"It's fine," she said, smiling. They were an entertaining group, all of them. "Really. Thank you for letting me come with you guys."

Mike nodded, grinning at her with his hands hidden inside his hoodie. "I hope you had fun."

"I did," she said. And she really had. And, looking at Mike, she thought that he was almost enough to make her want to stop destroying universes.

Almost.

Mike blushed under her gaze, and she smirked at him, wondering in her head what his final screams would sound like.

That night, once the others had split off, she continued walking on her own, making up some lie about her house being farther on, and then, once she was in the woods, she brought herself away to her Limbo where she would sleep.

For the first time, she had a terrible dream.

She dreamed about destroying their world, and walking along the streets as around her people burned to death, when a hand grabbed her foot, and no matter what she did she couldn't move. Turning to see, she saw a half-burned body, Mike, horribly deformed, but his eyes were intact and silently asked her why--

El woke up in a cold sweat, with no memory of the dream except for the saddened eyes.

* * *

She returned the next day, walking the streets and imagining this entire town on fire, when she ran into him again.

"Hey!" Mike said, grinning when she appeared.

"Hello," El said, smiling at him with a tiny wave.

"What are you up to?" he asked, smiling at her nervously.

"Just...thinking." _About the most painful way to kill everything you know, Mike. But don't worry, I'll save you for last, and maybe I'll keep you as a playmate for a little while..._

Why did it now sound so terrible?

"Oh," Mike was saying. "That's cool. It's nice to run into a friend, though. Everyone else has a camp that starts today." Then he stopped, and said "Wait, we are friends, right?"

El nodded, smirking. "Sure."

"Cool! Awesome! I just, uh, wanted to make sure you didn't think we're all losers or something."

"Mike," El said, shaking her head. "You guys are fine. Really."

"Well, awesome! I'm glad you actually can tolerate us!"

"Me too," she said. "Are you doing anything right now?"

"Nah, just...walking around, like you, I guess. Why?"

"Here, I'll join you," she said. Mike blinked. "Oh! Well, okay, awesome!"

They walked for a little while in silence, each preoccupied with their own very different thoughts.

"Lucas doesn't like you," Mike said.

"I know," El said.

"I mean, I don't know why, because so far you seem pretty cool, but I guess he just has a hard time trusting people."

 _Smart kid, Lucas,_ El thought, but she said aloud "Maybe he'll like me eventually."

"Maybe. I hope so."

She glanced over at Mike curiously, and he gave her a small smile before looking very quickly at the ground.

He had a crush, that much was obvious, even if he didn't know it yet, and she thought about how easy it would be to manipulate Mike Wheeler.

But, somehow, the idea didn't appeal to her as much as it should. El, for the first time ever, felt something flip inside her chest, and had the sudden urge to tackle the boy next to her to the ground and--

No. She musn't think of that. But the idea had already taken hold, and she smirked.

"What?" Mike asked, noticing. "Do I have something on my face?"

"No, sorry," El said, not bothering to drop the smirk. "Just...thinking."

"About what?"

"You," she said. And it was sort of true.

Mike turned scarlet, his eyes glowing, and looked down at the sidewalk. "Me too," he whispered.

Despite herself, she felt heat rising to her face, and suddenly, she wanted nothing more than to take him to another, empty universe where he could be with her forever.

God, what was with the sentiment all of a sudden? What was wrong with her?

Her eyes flicked to Mike.

Maybe, just maybe, it would be okay to hold off on destroying his universe. At least a little bit.

A drop of water hit her on the face. El looked up just as it began to mist, then drizzle, then pour.

"Dammit," Mike said, glaring at the sky. "We're gonna have to find somewhere to go in."

They ran through the rain, both of them getting soaked. "My house is just a little further," he called back to her. She only nodded.

Mike wrenched open the door. "Mom?" he called into the house. 

No answer, and he turned to look at her. "Nobody's home," he said unnecessarily.

El smiled at him. "I don't mind."

The boy blushed, walking inside and shaking his hair to dry himself off. He looked an awful lot like a dog, and she giggled.

"Here, I'll go get us towels," Mike said, dashing off.

Newly dry, the two went to the basement.

Despite herself, El found that she liked Mike's basement quite a lot. It was warm and seemed extraordinarily comforting, and she smiled to herself, looking around. Would it be possible to destroy everything except this house? The atmosphere of the room was quite unlike what she was used to.

"What do you feel like doing?" Mike asked her. "I doubt I can walk you home in this weather, so we should probably wait it out. Guess that means you're stuck with me."

El shrugged, smirking slightly at him. "I don't mind."

Mike blushed, ducking his head. He was so easy for her to manipulate. El smiled wickedly to herself.

Mike hadn't noticed, busy fussing over a group of action figures on a shelf, and left her to wander around the basement and just look. The rain thrashed against the windows, begging to be let in, and she smiled mockingly at it and turned around.

"Want to watch a movie?" Mike asked her from across the room. El turned to look, shrugging. "Sure. What movie?"

"Um--" Mike grinned sheepishly. "I know it's stupid but...uh...do you want to watch Star Wars."

"What is it?" she said.

"Oh, it's awesome! Basically, there's this guy named Luke Skywalker and he lives on this desert planet--"

She remembered now, having destroyed a universe quite similar to that. But he looked so excited about it...

El smiled at how giddy he got over the entire thing. "Sure, I'll watch it."

"Awesome!" Mike said, looking far too happy, and then he somehow managed to turn on the TV, put it in, and set everything up in the course of two minutes.

She sat down, and Mike sat down as well, a bit farther away then she would have liked.

"Mike," she told him. "You can move closer."

"Oh! Um, okay," he said nervously, and he moved a little closer.

El rolled her eyes, smiling, and moved so their shoulders were touching. "There," she said.

Mike blushed. "You sure?"

"I wouldn't be doing this if I wasn't," she said.

She found she liked the movie, although there were a few differences between the movie and the universe she had been too. Darth Vader had a red suit there, but she liked the black a little better.

Their hands were very close together, and El, noticing this, gently tickled his index finger with her pinky, hooking it around. Mike had frozen, but he opened his fingers slightly.

Now:

El, formerly referred to as 011, cruel and cold and sadistic, destroyer of universe after universe, was holding hands and _blushing_ next to Michael Wheeler, nerd, totally blind to what she really was.

El put her head on his shoulder, sighing. _It's only to make his heartbreak worse_ , she told herself, but the idea of watching him beg at her feet suddenly didn't seem all that fun.

For now, she was just going to enjoy the moment.

She should have felt bad for causing that rainstorm, but she decided it was worth it.


	3. The Alert

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> One year ago, two workers hear the news of a terrible accident. Just a short little throw-in to get my gears running again.

_Alternate Reality Monitor (ARM) File #78882A Re: 011_

_Page 2_

* * *

**One Year Ago**

"Morning," he said, nodding to a coworker as he sat down at his desk.

"Hey, Robert," James said, grinning. "Nice to see you got your lazy ass out of bed." Robert scoffed and sipped his coffee. It scalded his tongue, but at least it kept him awake.

Robert and James were good friends, working across from each other, and they both came from the same place, an rarity in their line of work.

"How's the wife?" James asked, kicking back.

"Fine," Robert said. "I just wish I wasn't so far away, you know?"

"Yeah, I get it," the other man said. "Back when I was married, my wife used to get so upset. Thought I was cheating."

"I remember. She was just upset, is all."

James sighed and leaned back. "We all were, I guess. Anyway. How are your kids?"

"Younger boy's still shy as ever," Robert said. "Older kid, he pretty much takes care of everything when my wife isn't home. Takes after his real father."

"Only in that respect, thankfully," James snorted, lighting a cigarette. Robert smiled wryly.

Suddenly, the alarms in the building wailed in anguish, flashing red, and Robert and James exchanged glances, getting up hastily. "Trouble," James said unnecessarily.

They met with the others in the conference room. At the head, their boss, looking uncharacteristically shaken, rubbed his face anxiously. "We've just received news that a Designate was just destroyed."

Dead, stunned silence as each man and woman exchanged shocked looks.

"How?" someone asked. "How is that...possible?"

"We're looking at the possibility of, uh, a breach which may have triggered the explosion," the boss said. "We believe that the only survivor may have something to do with it." Pressing a button, the screen showed a small girl, short-haired and bony. Nothing scary about her, except her eyes. They were cold, flaring, full of hate. A shiver rippled across the room.

"But...but how?" someone else managed.

"We think that it's possible she may have breached the wall, gotten her hands on some serious energy, and just let it out."

"Jesus Christ," Robert said, sinking down in a chair. "Jesus Christ. What would drive someone to do that?"

"According to our information, it would seem this child was held captive for years under terrible conditions."

The boss sat down, sighing. He seemed to be having a hard time composing himself. 

"You are all to return to your homes," he said. "We will alert you all if--my God!"

On the wall was a map of their Designates, and suddenly a second one flashed red.

"Another one," he said. "My God, she's done another one."

Then another flashed red.

Robert and James left in a considerable glum mood.

"Need a lift home?" James offered.

"Sure."

The door to a house opened, and a woman stepped out. "Oh! You're home early...what's the matter?"

Robert just looked at her. "Just...some problems at work."

"Is everything okay?"

He stepped forward, hugging her. "I'm glad you're safe, Joyce," was all he said.

"I'm glad you're home, Bob," she replied.

One year later, Robert "Bob" Newby and James "Jim" Hopper received intelligence that 011 had been located on their very earth. Bob went inside his house and hugged his children, then met with Jim and went to work.


	4. The Surprise

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> El's getting more and more conflicted, and today she decides.

She saw Mike over the next week or so, but always with his friends, so it was a pleasant surprise when she saw him, holding the hand of a little girl she knew to be his sister, without the others. Lucas had accepted her at last, even if he still didn't trust her, but at least he tolerated her presence.

"El! Hi!" he said, beaming at her. She smiled, waving, and approached. "Hi, Mike."

The little girl next to him looked between them shrewdly. "Is this El?" she asked her brother.

"Yep," Mike said.

"The girl who came over?"

"Yep."

"The girl who you talk about a l--"

Mike clamped a hand over her mouth. "I think she gets it," he said, his cheeks flushing. Turning to El, he smiled sheepishly. "Sorry about her."

"Don't be," El said, cocking her head slightly. "Where are you guys going?"

"Oh, actually, I'm taking her home from a movie," Mike said. "Why?"

She smirked at him. "I don't know. I just wanted to know if you'd want to hang out a little."

Mike blushed harder. "Yeah! I mean, yeah, sure. Let me just take her home--shut it, Holly," he added, glaring at the little girl. She stopped making kissy faces immediately.

Holly was home, and Mike grinned at her goofily. "So what did you want to do?"

"I just wanted to walk with you," El said with a shrug. "That okay?"

"For sure," Mike said, beaming.

"I keep forgetting, but that day...the rainstorm was nice," she said. The boy next to her was incredibly red. "Y-yeah," he said stupidly. "It was."

"Would you want to again?"

"What?" His head snapped in her direction.

"Again. Would you want to again?"

He nodded eagerly, almost at a loss for words. El smirked and took his hand, humming. Despite herself, she shivered with pleasure. Turning to look at him, she allowed her eyes to rake over him. He seemed so _pure,_ her polar opposite, all bright eyes and blushing cheeks and shy smiles. It occurred to her that it would be far too easy to simply snap his neck.

Whatever. it was more fun to manipulate him. Which was what she was doing, obviously.

 _Oh, just keep telling yourself that, Ellie,_ a tiny, mocking voice said in the back of her mind.

Mike looked up and met her eyes, and she smirked slightly but didn't drop her gaze. So they walked, hand in hand, just staring at each other. A random word crossed El's mind: _Pretty._ Really, there was no other way to describe him.

Then, Mike walked into a parking meter.

"Jesus _fuck,"_ he said, rubbing his ribs. "How? How does this always happen to me?"

El couldn't help herself. She laughed.

Mike thought it was the best sound he'd ever heard.

They wandered to the Quarry, sitting down on a rock and just looking down at the water.

She knew she shouldn't get too attached, but for the moment she allowed herself to relax into Mike, relishing a moment with him before the inevitable.

Mike nervously put a hesitant arm on her back, and she sighed, nestling into him further. And, suddenly, El's heart thawed a little, and she Understood.

She was evil, something she reveled in proudly and loved with sick satisfaction, but she decided, right then and there, that she would do anything, anything to protect the boy sitting next to her.

 _What is wrong with you?_ the darker, angry side of her howled only halfheartedly. _Push him off the cliff._

 _Shush,_ she told it.

El loved destroying, death, despair, but she thought that maybe it wouldn't be so bad to stop at least for a time. The screams of billions seemed less appealing to her now.

Could one boy really change her viewpoint so much?

More than she wanted to admit.

"Mike?" she asked him. He turned as she pulled away gently. "Yeah, El?"

El grabbed his face and kissed him, snaking her arms around his neck and tousling his hair gently. Mike groaned against her mouth, nervously kissing back.

 _Mine,_ she thought, wrapping a leg around his waist and pulling him in more. _All mine._

 _Only until he has to die,_ her darker side offered feebly, but it didn't sound too happy about it. 

She pulled away. Mike looked like he'd been hit by a truck. "Holy-holy shit," he whispered.

"Hi," she whispered to him.

Mike's nose started to bleed, and it reminded her so much of _her_ that she had to giggle, wiping some of it away. "Good?" she asked him.

"Holy shit," Mike breathed.

It was all the answer she needed, and she kissed him again, pushing him down so he was lying flat out on the rock and she was above him.

God, he looked perfect. So vulnerable and pathetic and weak and just _perfect._

"You're mine," she whispered.

"Yours?"

"All mine."

"I can live with that."

She kissed him again, a third time, not wanting to stop. She'd never destroy another universe if it meant she could stay here, right now, with Mike Wheeler underneath her, entirely helpless.

Pulling away, she grinned wickedly at him. "If you can't tell, I sort of like you," she said.

Mike laughed. "Me too, El."

Then he fainted.

It wasn't just "like," El figured out. For the first time in her life, she was genuinely...was it happiness? It must have been, accompanied by another, unfamiliar feeling. Swooping, elating, brilliantly bright, her mind landed on the word "love."

Was that the word?

She looked down at Mike's prone form, his floppy dark hair and parted mouth and freckles, and decided that yes, it was.

"Mike," she said, gently shaking him.

"I fainted, didn't I?" he deadpanned. She nodded, smirking, and Mike grimaced, slapping his forehead.

El laughed, a truly happy sound entirely foreign to her. "C'mon," she said, standing up and offering him a hand. He took it gratefully.

They were walking through the woods when it happened.

The sun was dipping, giving everything an orange and grey color, and El stopped.

"What is it?" Mike asked.

"Shh," she said gently, looking around. She thought she heard a noise--

Suddenly, out of nowhere, men in suits had surrounded them. Mike jumped, swearing.

El, however, sneered. "It's you," she said, her tone mocking.

"El?" Mike asked nervously. "What's going on?"

"Just some assholes who won't leave me alone," El snarled.

"Put your hands on your head," one of the men said.

"Or what?"

"Or we take Wheeler."

El froze. They wouldn't dare, would they?

"El, what's going on?" Mike asked. "Wh-who are these people?"

The man pulled out a badge. "Alternate Reality Monitor, Mr Wheeler. Your 'El' has been number one on our wanted list for a year."

"El?" Mike asked, looking at her. "Is this a joke?"

"I'm afraid not," the man said. "El here is responsible for the deaths of nearly one million universes in the past year alone."

"Wait, wait, slow down," Mike said. "You're saying...other universes exist?"

"Yes."

"And...El...she..."

"Yes." A truly sympathetic look came over the man's face. "I'm sorry, son."

"Wh--no. No way. El would never. Right, El?"

She was silent, looking at the forest grass.

"Right, El?" he repeated, urgently, begging.

The man sighed. "Whoever you think she is, Wheeler, she's not."

Mike only stared. Too much. It was too much for him to swallow.

"Mike," El said, reaching for him, but he backed away, utterly speechless.

El felt tears pricking her eyes, and she turned away from him.

"Now, 011, I'm going to ask you to put your hands on your head," the man said.

"You've ruined everything," she whispered.

"I'm afraid it was you who--"

"Shut UP!" she screamed, and with a horrible popping crunch his head exploded. The other men moved forward, but she cocked her head in horrible glee and each man felt their organs collapsing.

"Urk--" said the last man, choking, and she kicked him in the ribs as he died. She set the others on fire, watching their screams with twisted satisfaction.

There was a choking noise, and she turned to face...Mike.

"El?" he asked.

She spread her arms almost mockingly. "Hello, Mike."

He took a step back. "Wh--you--"

El stepped towards him, and he shrank away. "Monster," he said, pointing. "You--you're a monster!" His wits took hold of his legs, and he backed a few steps and then ran for his life.

It was only when he was gone that El, for the first time in her life, let tears fall from her eyes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It was gonna be slow burn, but I gave up.  
> But uh oh! What's gonna happen now that Mike knows?


	5. The Truth

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A shaking Mike shows up at Lucas's house covered in blood.

There was a knock on the door, frantic.

"Lucas! Can you get that?" his mother called. Lucas sighed, opening the door, and then stopped.

"Mike?"

It was Mike, covered in blood. His eyes were wide and terrified, and he looked like he'd run through a few thorn bushes.

"Are you all right?" Lucas asked.

"C-can I come in?" Mike said, his voice unsteady. "Please?"

Lucas stepped aside, and Mike glanced behind him anxiously and hastily stepped inside.

They were sitting in his room, after Lucas shooed Erica out and locked the door.

"What happened to you?" he demanded.

Mike didn't answer, sinking down on the floor, and he pressed his face into his hands.

"Oh my god," he whispered. "Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god..."

"Mike?"

"It was El," Mike said, looking up. His eyes were wet, now, and wide. "It was El, Lucas. You were right."

"What happened?" Lucas asked again.

Slowly, shakily, Mike told him everything. Even the kiss.

Lucas just stared at him.

"You were right about her," Mike said. "You were right. I was so stupid..."

"Is this a prank?" Lucas demanded. "Did Dustin put you up to this?"

"What? No, no, Lucas!"

"Come on, Mike," Lucas said. "You said she exploded a guy's head and that she blows up other universes. Don't you get how crazy that sounds?"

"Yeah! I mean, I get it sounds insane! It is insane! Lucas, it happened. It happened."

Lucas fixed him with a studying gaze.

Mike's eyes were convinced, sure.

That was what scared Lucas the most.

"Let's go," he said, getting up. "Come on."

"Where are we going?" Mike asked.

"We're gonna go to where she killed those people."

* * *

The spot was empty.

"Where are they?" Lucas demanded, looking around. "Where did they go?"

"They're here somewhere," Mike insisted, his bike lying on the ground. "I know they are."

"Mike, come on, man--"

"Here!" the other boy shouted. "Here, look!"

Lucas knelt down next to Mike; it was unmistakably bloodstains on the rocks.

"Mike, those could have been here forever."

"No. No, I know they're here. Help me look. See?"

The drops of blood ran slowly towards a ditch, where they followed them, and Mike pushed aside a bush.

Lucas staggered back, "Jesus!"

There in the bush was a headless corpse.

"No way," Lucas muttered. "No fucking way."

Then, he threw up.

* * *

The others soon arrived after Lucas shakily radioed them.

"Holy shit," Dustin said, gaping. Will looked very green.

Max thought it was cool. Of course she did.

"How did this happen?" Will asked quietly.

The others, even Max, were silent after he finished (minus the kiss).

"Holy shit," Dustin said again, helpfully.

"Now...I think she's going to try and destroy our universe."

"What can we do?" Max said, prodding the body with a stick.

"I don't know."

"What do we need to do to get to her?"

"I don't know!" Mike said more insistently, pacing the grass and trying not to look at the corpse. "I don't know. We'd need some way to temporarily incapacitate her."

"No, not good enough," Dustin said. "Then she could just come back and destroy everything anyway."

"Are you saying--"

"We might have to kill her," he said seriously.

"Or we need to figure out how to get rid of her powers," Will piped up. 

"No way we can pull this off," Max said, covering up the body again.

"We can still try," Mike said. "We have to."

* * *

It had all been so perfect, just for a moment.

Then, those fucking soldiers had to show up and ruin everything.

She was running now, blindly through the forest. The tears were gone now, but she was full of rage. A squirrel ran past her and she crushed it, relishing how it squirmed before its death.

Mike.

Oh, Mike.

She kept going back to his horrified face, how he had staggered backwards and then ran.

 _Coward,_ she thought.

But she didn't really mean it.

For a moment, El considered bending his will to her own, manipulating him until he loved her, but it wouldn't be quite the same.

But she wanted Mike with her. 

Deep down, she still had a flare of goodness in her, and she knew that ARM would do anything to get to her--including kill Mike.

El wasn't going to let that happen.

So she would have to go find Mike herself.

By any means necessary.

* * *

They were sitting in the Wheeler's basement, Mike's back pointedly facing the couch.

Lucas laid back, covering his eyes. "It's been four hours and we still haven't come up with a plan."

Dustin was pacing the floor, his hands laced together over his hat. "Shit, it's not like we aren't trying."

Sprawled out strangely on an armchair was Max, fiddling with her hair in apparent nonchalance. Will was leaning against the side of the chair, twisting his fingers anxiously.

"It's hopeless," Mike said. "We're so screwed."

"Don't say that--"

"Oh, what, am I supposed to bullshit you here? What can we do? It's not like we can stop her or get her out of our universe."

"A gate to another dimension would be really helpful right now," Dustin muttered.

Suddenly, the ground shook. A laundry basket fell over, its contents spreading on the floor.

Everyone was frozen.

"What...what was that?" Will asked.

"El."

* * *

That was their first warning. A tiny earthquake.

* * *

"Shit, it's starting," Dustin said, rubbing his temples. "Shit, shit, shit."

Will had curled himself into a ball, sitting on the floor and looking very small.

"Guys--" Mike began, but suddenly there was a knock on the door. They jumped.

The group looked at each other. Mike nervously got up and opened the door to find--

\--Jennifer.

Jennifer Hayes.

Okay, wait. What?

"Hi, Will," she said with a wave. Will smiled wanly at her from the floor.

"What are you doing here?" Max asked, pointing at her with a pen.

"Oh, actually, I came to drop off Will's math book. I was going to leave it with Mrs Byers, but she said you might be here."

"Thanks, Jen," Will said, taking it from her.

"Everything okay with you guys?" she asked. "It was just a tiny quake."

It occurred to Mike that for Jennifer, life was the same as it always was. A small quake was just a mildly interesting occurrence.

"Uh, yeah," Will muttered. "We're--we're fine."

Suddenly, the lights went out.

"Shit," Dustin muttered.

Then, they flared back to life, impossibly bright, and they jumped as the walkie-talkie and the radio spoke.

" _Mike,_ " the voice said.

The others, save Jennifer, exchanged looks.

"At least we know what she wants," Max said, twisting her hair around a finger.

"Guys, what's going on?" Jennifer asked.

* * *

Now, they knew her motive. El smiled to herself. Although--perhaps it might be faster to simply go to them.

* * *

They had just gotten to the part where Mike and El had been ambushed in the woods when there was another quake.

A bookshelf toppled, and they pushed out of the basement. Will grabbed Jen's hand and pulled her out as well, but nobody bothered to tease them. Now was not the time.

The ground stopped shaking, but down the street there was a scream that ended suddenly. They heard a tree crackle and fall, and then fire flared up suddenly.

"Holy shit," Lucas said.

"All right, we gotta go," Mike said.

"Are you saying this girl can destroy planets?" Jennifer demanded.

"Universes," Will told her. "Come on, get your bike, we gotta go."

They pedaled out onto the street, and looked down.

Mistake number one.

The entire end of the street was on fire. Oddly, considering what they knew of the culprit, it seemed like the people Mike knew who lived there (about ten people) had been left alive to run around the street and panic.

"Fuck," Jennifer whispered to herself.

Then, there was El.

She locked eyes with Mike, smirking.

"Go, go, go, go!" Dustin shouted, and they peeled away.

* * *

She wasn't going to kill anyone. Unless she had to. But she needed to get to Mike. 

The fires were just to get his attention.

El loved him. She loved him. Not any Mike from any alternate universe, but this Mike, only this one.

But let's stand back for a moment, because El's idea of love is different. El's love is possessive, protective, twisted and thorny and dark, but still love. Perhaps.

And El was willing to do anything to make him see that she was different now. Because she was, consciously now. He'd never love her if she destroyed his world, so she decided she wouldn't.

El was still holding on to the silent promises she'd made while kissing him on the rock. Whatever it took to get Mike, make him really _hers,_ she was going to do.

* * *

The others don't know that. The others are biking away right now. Mike is choking on fear, anxiousness, but he still loves her back. 

Still.

That poor kid.

Mike doesn't know that her actions are motivated simply to reach out to him. Mike thinks that she wants to kill him, and understandably.

Can a person really change from sadistic and hate-filled to love-driven if misguided? That quickly?

Maybe. Maybe not.

But in the case of El, I think it's possible she can.


	6. The Result

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Out story draws to an end. Thank you, thank you, gather your hats and coat, hope you enjoyed the show. Drive home safe, everybody.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In the interest of time, I've moved the planned epilogue into this chapter. So it's basically the same length it would have been to begin with. Apologies.

Dear, oh dear.

There really doesn't seem to be a very nice way to end this story, does there?

Let's look at the possible futures: Mike Wheeler collapsed on the ground, blood leaking from his stomach--breathing but barely; it's 98% possible he won't make it. El, power crackling in her fists as a world below her buckles and cracks. Mike Wheeler, holding the gun which ended El's life. El and Mike, walking together down a road together.

I can assure you that our story does not end with El and Mike walking down the road. That leaves you with three options. Which do you prefer?

I don't know about you, but I prefer none of them.

Dear, oh dear.

* * *

Really, if we examine the evidence, it's rather difficult to imagine how this story could end well, if it can at all. Mike Wheeler at this moment is pedaling away at top speed. Inside his heart is a turbulent sludge of both terror and hopeless, enraptured love. El is striding down a burning road, tilting her head as a pet cat's neck is snapped. ARM is coming for them both.

Sometimes I regret having discovered this universe at all.

* * *

The biggest question, I would imagine, would be "Has El really changed?"

El's a monster, she kills for the fun of it, she relishes the screams of the dying.

El also keeps going back to kissing the boy on the rock, stroking his hair, snaking her arms around his neck. She decides that she would do anything necessary to protect that boy, and make sure nothing gets to him.

She loves him.

And El, for the first time in her life, feels regret for something. It's so alien that she wants to spit in disgust, and it threatens to bring tears to her eyes. How many people like Mike has she killed?

So I would think she has changed. Still a monster, but a warm-blooded monster in the least.

* * *

What about Mike? Does Mike love her?

Yes.

As he's pedaling away, gripping fear squeezing at his every nerve, his mind wanders away and goes back to a hazel-eyed girl grabbing his face and collar and kissing him.

Mike just wants to pedal away behind a rock far, far away and he wants to cry, because he really doesn't know what he can do. He knows she can kill him and he thinks she will. Mike loves El, and he's even more scared because of that.

If he knew she was changed? He might turn his bike around and run back to her.

He doesn't know she's changed.

It's eating him up.

* * *

"Go, go, go, go!" Dustin says, and they peel away.

Mike pedals as he never has before, adrenaline blasting through his veins.

It seems that time slows down, suddenly, and Mike takes in everything. Above, the sky is blue and clear, tarnished only by the orange and grey of the fires behind him.

A moth flutters alongside him.

A leaf skitters across the road, lifting and blowing into the grass.

Ahead of him, Jennifer is looking back behind them, her eyes wild and confused and afraid.

She has a bit of lint stuck to her coat.

Will stares resolutely ahead, pale and terrified but determined to live. His hair twists oddly in the wind as he coasts down the hill.

Beside him is Dustin, screaming "SHIT" in an oddly muffled voice. Mike wonders how long he's had a freckle on his chin.

Lucas and Max ride side-by-side ahead, and Mike notices their feet pedal in the exact same pace and direction. He almost wants to laugh. Max's sweater, he notices, has a grass stain on it. Lucas's bike has a chip on the rear end.

Time speeds back up and they're pedaling furiously, using the momentum from the hill to gain extra speed. Behind them is fire and screams. Ahead of them is possible safety.

Then, out of nowhere, a group of men in suits pop into existence.

"Fuck!" Jennifer says, much louder this time.

They're SO fucked.

"I'm gonna need you to stop right there," one of the men calls.

"Out of the way!" Mike screams back, desperate.

"Mr Wheeler--"

"Move!"

The man sighs, lifting a gun, and Mike nearly falls off his bike, but--

"No!" A voice screams behind them, and the others turn as El comes striding up the hill, fire curling and writhing around her fists.

"Leave him alone," she says, and the man is thrown violently to the ground. Something cracks.

The other men, muttering, raise their guns, red pinpricks dotting her shirt.

"Please," El scoffs, and with a snap of her fingers their guns melt, burning. "You think you can take me?"

"Maybe not you," the leader says, standing up. "But we can take him."

A shot.

Then, Mike is keeled over on the ground, blood leaking from his stomach.

(well, at least we know which future we got)

"Mike!" El screams, and with an odd crackling noise the man's back is bent out of shape. He falls to the ground, gurgling. The others are standing stock still, frozen in both fear and outright confusion.

Mike rolls over, chest heaving, his shirt rapidly turning red.

"Mike, Mike, Mike," El says, and she feels tears falling from her eyes. For once, even her dark voice is quiet.

"El?" Mike gasps.

"Mike--I'm sorry, Mike. I'm sorry." Not just for the shot--for everything. For scaring them, for traumatizing him, for lying, even for the destruction of thousands of worlds.

"S'okay," Mike mumbles, grinning blearily. He coughs and a bit of blood splatters onto his chin. "S'okay, El."

"I can heal you," she says desperately, and she tugs at his shirt. Mike gasps as the air hits the wound.

It's bad, a lot worse than she might have thought.

"El, I might not make it--" Mike says.

"I'm going to try," she says, and with a tilt of her head his protests are muted. "Shut up and let me do this."

She closes her eyes, concentrates, imagines the bullet slowly being removed. In her mind's eye, she imagines the skin reseals as the bullet leaves.

Killing and destroying at random is easy. Methodical work like this? Not so much.

Then, she hears a clink, and when she opens her eyes the bullet is lying on the road and Mike is alive, _alive,_ and so beautiful at that moment.

She can't help it. She kisses him again.

The others simply watch in astonishment at what's happening.

When she pulls away, Mike looks pale and tired, but he grins at her. "That was nice," he mumbles.

"I'm going to stop," she whispers. "I'm going to stop killing, Mike. It's--I'm going to stop."

"Promise?" he asks.

"Promise."

He grins at her, closing his eyes. Mike's exhausted, the adrenaline having worn off.

El looks up at the rest of them.

"Holy shit," Dustin says.

For the first time, she feels...shy. What a strange, alien emotion.

So, instead of having to face them and what they might or might now say, she picks Mike up and sets off down the road with him in her arms.

Admittedly, not a bad way to wrap this up, I would say.

* * *

Time moves in a clear, linear path in this universe for the most part. A few hiccups here and there, but the timeline eventually rights itself. Thus, we find ourselves one year in the future.

Robert Newby and James Hopper turn up later in the forest, unsure of why they're there. Bob returns home, confused, but accepts a hug from his wife. He never can quite shake the feeling that his youngest son knows something he doesn't.

James Hopper is elected town sheriff. When a strange girl turns up in town with nowhere to live, he lets her stay in his cabin. She's a little jumpy at first, but he grows to love her as a daughter, and she learns to love him as a father. He may not always know what he's doing, but he tries. He always feels, however, like she seems very familiar, but it's probably nothing. Maybe she just reminds him of Sara.

For the rest of them, life settles back to a normalcy. Somewhat.

The rest of them don't fully trust El, but they've come to accept her as one of their own. Lucas, a few days after the end, patted her nervously on the back. "Look, I still don't trust you," he said. "But you saved Mike's life. And we owe that to you."

She'd only smiled softly, stroking Mike's hair.

Dustin thought El was the coolest thing since X-Men comic books, which she thought was funny. Once, for his birthday, she made his Star Wars spaceships fly around his yard, which he thought was amazing. "Your girlfriend is awesome, Mike," he said, and Mike blushed and hit him on the arm.

Max still wasn't all the way there yet, but she had Lucas to hold hands with and he acted as her rock to ground her. El liked them together. Once, Max taught her to skateboard.

Will and Jennifer started going out, to nobody's surprise within the party, and El and Will bonded over music. It was their thing now.

As for Mike?

Well, Mike is still...Mike.

"Shit!" he says, and promptly is sprawled out on the floor. El giggles, a hand going over her mouth.

"Shut up," he grumbles, picking himself up and retrieving his books.

He crams them in his locker, grunting. El just watches, smirking at him.

"Not gonna help me here?" Mike asks.

"I don't know what you're talking about," she says innocently. Mike just rolls his eyes, cramming in a protesting textbook and slamming the door, leaning against it.

"I survived," he says, gasping.

"You're such a dork," El says, grinning.

"Yeah, but I'm _your_ dork."

"You are," she says, and then she grabs his collar and kisses him. "Don't you forget it, Wheeler."

Mike colors, grinning goofily at her. "I love you."

"I love you too."

"God, could you guys be any more disgusting?" Max says, flouncing up to them. "Hey, Wheeler. Hey, El." El waves, and Mike just grumbles.

"Don't spend too much time making out, okay kids?" she says.

"Try to keep that in mind the next time you see Lucas," Mike fires back, and Max just smirks at him before jogging off.

"She ruined the moment," Mike sighs, glaring at her back.

El laughs, squeezing his hand. "We could always make some more moments," she says, getting close to him. "Maybe at the Quarry later."

Mike smiles at her. "Let's do that."

"I'm glad you're mine," she whispers to him, and he feels goosebumps rise on his arms.

"So'm I," he whispers back.

She winks, tugging at his hand and leading him outside to where the others are.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What do you all think? Want a sequel where ARM comes back? I could bring Kali into this too.   
> Shit, I just realized I forgot to add in a segment on the Mind Flayer, so I guess that would go in a possible sequel too.  
> What do you think? Let me know in the comments I guess.


End file.
